The KAIROS Blanket Exercise: Engaging Indigenous ways of knowing to foster critical consciousness in medical education.

PURPOSE: Indigenous Peoples across Turtle Island (North America) experience ongoing health disparities tied to the effects of colonization and persistent racism toward Indigenous Peoples. Educating future clinicians to develop a critical consciousness is an important way to work toward cultural safety and improve the health care experiences of Indigenous patients. The present study evaluated the ability of the KAIROS Blanket Exercise (KBE) to foster critical consciousness. METHODS: Two hundred thirteen medical students at the University of Toronto participated in the KBE. Subsequently, 174 students completed a paper evaluation, designed to capture concepts of cultural safety and critical consciousness. Data were analyzed using quantitative and qualitative methods to identify shifts in perspectives. RESULTS: The majority of students reported the exercise altered the way they viewed those from backgrounds different from their own, and comments regarding bias, power and privilege were highlighted throughout the responses. Engaging in critical reflection through dialogue and revealing the complex sociopolitical context of Indigenous Peoples' history were emphasized as central to this transformation. CONCLUSIONS: Following participation in the KBE, medical students demonstrated a shift in their perspectives. This suggests that creating curricular space for critical pedagogy may be effective in fostering critical consciousness, ultimately encouraging reflexive practice and social action.

The need for narrative reflection and experiential learning in medical education: A lesson learned through an urban indigenous health elective.

In this personal view article, I discuss a formative experience I had during an Urban Indigenous Health elective in which I participated while in my final year of medical school. The elective was developed on the foundation of an experiential learning model, which is central to Indigenous pedagogy and emphasizes learning through experience and narrative reflection. By transforming medical education into a place where such concepts are integrated and valued, I argue that we will create physicians who are self-aware, compassionate and able to provide culturally safe care to all patient populations they will serve in their future practices.